


Through the Poisoned Days

by olivemartini



Series: All The Lovely Ones Have Scars [9]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Pepper's badass, With Tony in it, slightly hurt Tony, the building exploded
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-14 14:39:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14138133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olivemartini/pseuds/olivemartini
Summary: When Jarvis tells her to check the television, she's expecting something she can handle, like a Tony made PR nightmare or dropping Starks, not an image of a Stark lab up in smoke, the one where she had sent Tony to visit only hours before.  The sight of it knocks the wind out of her, like when you are climbing the stairs and think there is one more step, only your foot just sinks through the open air and you are convinced that you are falling.This feeling of not knowing is a little like that, only there's no solid ground, not anymore.





	Through the Poisoned Days

**Author's Note:**

> what even is that title

Pepper wouldn't have known about it if it hadn't been for Jarvis.

"Miss Potts,"  He said, his ever calm and reasonable voice tinged with something that might have been panic, if she thought that Tony would program his AI's to have the option for panic.  "I believe there's something you should see."

The tv flickered on overhead, and Pepper watches it with one eye on the paperwork she was working her way through filing, because at that point she still hadn't thought that anything would be wrong.  You never are able to tell when your life is about to change, because the bad things are never the stuff you can see coming.  It's always the stuff that blindsides you, like when you listen to the news reporters thinking that you are going to hear about failing stocks or invention mishaps, and instead you catch sight of one of the Stark Industry labs with smoke billowing out its windows, the one where Pepper had finally cajoled Tony into taking a visit at.

Seeing it was like that moment when you are tired and climbing the stairs, and you expect there to be another step but your foot just meets the air instead, and you have a split second of panic where you think that you are falling.  Only this time, there would be no ground coming up to meet her, no moment where she realizes that she is safe, only her, standing all alone in this giant tower, realizing that all her responsibility and good intentions might have sent Tony to his death.

"Was he in there?"  She's thinking about all the phone calls she has to make, all the PR damage she needs to start working on, the board of directors she must be reassuring.  Her phone lights up from Stane, but she ignores it, because he wants to keep the line open for when Tony calls.  "Is he okay?"

 _He's going to call you._ She thought, gripping the phone, only he doesn't.  She watches the television instead, sees the emergency response crew pull up, only they are not going in.   _He's going to walk out of that door any minute, because Tony Stark is not the man who goes and dies.  He's too infuriating to give up that easy._

"I can't tell."  Jarvis voice definitely has some sort of stress, or panic, or anxiety, something that wasn't in his original coding but must have been picked up from years of watching Tony.  "Sir has not been able to contact me."

"He's alright."  For a moment, she wished that Jarvis was real, because then he could be the type of person to take control of the situation for her.  She could step back and start to cry like she wanted, lock herself in the guest room and watch every inch of this footage about the explosion, let someone who actually might know what they were doing take the lead, because Pepper talks a good game, but most of the time, she's more lost than anybody in the room.  "He's always alright."

He is always alright.  It's the only thing that keeps her going, because she has watched Tony walk into a hundred stupid situations and walk out unscathed.  He's gotten into bar fights, drank more alcohol than any mortal man should, climbed into race cars and on top of scaffolding, stuck his hands into machinery and had her spend the next week treating his burns.  

Tony was going to be fine, she knew, and sitting here and staring at the television was not the way to help him.  Pepper had a job to do, and god help her if she lets him down.

"It's Ms. Potts."  She snapped into the phone, rolling over to tap on the computer, clearing Tony's schedule for the next few days, just in case.  She was going to be doing damage control on this for a month.  "What the bloody hell happened?"

 

 

 

It became clear after a series of long and frustrating phone calls that no one knew what was happening.

They couldn't contact anyone on the inside, they didn't know what started the fire, if it even was just a fire or some sort of toxic explosion, if people were hurt, if people were dead, if Tony Stark, the greatest mind of his generation, was okay,

Pepper didn't like not knowing, so she called Happy, tried of waiting around in this house with Jarvis repeatedly telling her the same thing over and over again, as in  _there is no new information, emergency responders are working on entering the building, Sir has still not reached out to contact anyone, It's rather pointless to call him, Miss. Potts, my sources are telling me that his phone is dead._

That's really the thing that got her moving, because there was no way that Tony's phone had just gone dead, ran out of charge.  That thing was as important to Tony as his hands.  If it wasn't working, it wasn't because the battery ran out, it's because it got blown to smithereens.  

"Right."  There was no point and sitting here, waiting for a phone call that would never come.  And she didn't want to fend off reporters all afternoon while she waited to hear if Tony was okay.  "Jarvis, call Happy."  Pepper stared at her reflection staring back at her in the window, the red eyes and the wild hair and pale face, and started to put herself back together- redo the hair, paint on the make up, take a sip of coffee, and smile.  She would be strong if Tony cannot.  "I'm going to need a ride."

 

 

 

"You sure about this?"  Happy had been on board for getting her to see Tony, because he loves the man almost as much as she does, if not more.   He'd woven through traffic and broken speed limits without complaint, but now that he was staring at the wall of sirens and yellow police tape, it seemed that his willingness to break the law had gone up in smoke.  "They're probably keeping us back for good reason."

Probably.  Cars would cause traffic, which would block the fireman and ambulances, which would make people die.  One person, though, wouldn't hurt anything.

"You stay here.  Park somewhere, wait for me to call.  Try not to get blocked in."  That would be the worst thing, if her emergency escape was ruined by some double parking asshole reporter in a Mercedes.  "I'm going to head in."

Happy met her eyes in the rearview mirror, looked like he was about to argue but thought better of it, and then threw the car into park, letting her climb out.

"You can't go in there!"  Some blonde reporter grabbed at Pepper's arms, and in the part of her mind that was no longer functioning, Pepper recognized her as some girl that Tony had brought home after some party or drinking binge.  Pepper's not sure she even learned her name.  There were so many to keep track of.  "It might be poisonous!"

There had been a point in her life where the idea of poison air would have been enough to make Pepper stay and wait safely behind all their barriers, but that was before she had met Tony Stark.  Now, her life was chasing whims and reckless endangerment, not carefully checked off boxes and organized to-do lists.  This life was chaos, and fighting through a police barricade to get to him was just something that made sense now.

"Whatever."  She had a sudden memory of this girl snapping at her when Tony was through with her, calling her an excuse for a feminist, working for a sleazeball like Tony Stark.  Pepper hadn't bothered to correct her, then, but she sort of wants to, now, to tell her that he was brave and smart and  _good,_ and he had only been hurting, that's all, and he just tries to cover up all that pain with drink and sex and working binges, but when you get down to the core of things, he's the sort of man that makes you want to walk through invisible toxins just to see if he's alright, never mind the fact that he might be burning to a crisp at that very moment.  "I'll take my chances."

She's pretty sure Tony would pay for her hospital bills, anyways.

 

 

 

In the few days after the accident, when recordings were watched through and pictures examined, Pepper would make headlines.

This moment is what started her whole career, really, gave her the reputation as a woman of steel who will take no one's shit, not even Tony's Stark, and who could single handedly keep this company running even when the rest of the country was thinking it might be in ruins.

From the police barricade to the building, she was the only spot of motion.  She would watch the news later, how she was the only spot of pale pink in all that black cement, the way she never even looked back.  Really, she remembered being terrified out of her mind, thinking how stupid she was, how dangerous this was and probably highly illegal, and that even if she got to that building, she wouldn't be able to help Tony, anyways.  But all that stuff was overshadowed by the idea that she had a job to do, damn it, and that included getting Tony to his meeting in three days, which would not happen if no one got those firemen moving.

(there was no poison fog, or skin burning chemicals.  Jarvis had promised.)

When she actually makes it to the police, they don't notice her at first.  Men in uniform very rarely notice assistant, but by the time she's in the middle of their little group and staring up at the building, they really had no choice.  "Hey Lady."  She doesn't want to talk bad about the men in blue, but this one looked like a brute.  He reminded her of the gym teacher back home, the one that would never let any of the girls pitch in his stupid baseball games because he said women weren't good at sports.  "What are you doing back here?"

"Looking for whoever's in charge,"  She shoved her sunglasses up her head.  "I'm guessing that's not you?"

It wasn't.  It was some other man, much younger, with a much nicer smile, who actually listened to her when she showed him the records of what was being kept in the lab.  How none of it was chemical, none of it would be airborn toxins, and none of it would be explosive.  How this was a regular fire, like any other one they've fought day after day, and that it would be relatively safe for them to bust down that door and go save her boss.

Pepper tells him so, trying not to let her hands shake or have her voice show how worried she was, hoping it comes across as just another business woman doing her job.  They wouldn't need to know that she's only an assistant, and should have no more knowledge about this building as the janitors.

"You heard the woman."  The first man she talked to seemed a lot more inclined to listen to her when it means he gets to break down a door, or whatever fireman do.  "Let's move in!"

 

 

She doesn't want to watch, so she keeps taking phone calls, which are getting more and more exciting as the day went on.

"Do you know you're on tv?"  This from her sister, the first time they've talked since the funeral.  "Seriously, what are you doing?"

Pepper stopped herself from hanging up.  "My job."

"But you're on tv!"  She sounded like it was the best thing that could have happened, never mind the fact that Pepper was on tv every other week, albeit hiding behind Tony's shoulder.  "Wave hi!"

This time, Pepper really does hang up, only to have to answer the phone again.

"Stane, I'm busy at the moment, so if you have something to tell me, do it fast."  Not that she would do it.  She can't do much from the wreckage of this building, and she wasn't intending on leaving until she sees Tony, dead or alive.  Preferably alive.

"I know."  He sounds calm and a bit exasperated.  "Try looking up from your phone, will you?"

She did.  And when she did, the smoke cleared just enough for her to squint through at the roof, where a large group of people were gathered together, all of them waving their arms.

And on person right at the front, who seemed to be staring down at her, waving that garishly orange tie she had tried to talk him out of wearing this morning and he had only put on to spite her.

"He's okay."  She's still got Stane on the phone.  "He's alive!"

"Yeah, the fuckers alive."  Stane is actually... eating, she realized, had probably not even gotten up from the desk.  "Tell him he's got a lot of explaining to do, will you?"

 

 

 

She doesn't ask for an explanation, but he gives it anyways, switching between flirting with the nice paramedic and telling Pepper what happened on his way to the hospital. 

"I mean, we were doing good.  But the lab tech before us had awful handwriting, and what we thought was a seven was actually a one, and then... ka-boom."  He makes an explosion with his hands, making the IV fall out onto the floor.  He stares at it, dismayed, and Pepper has to wonder if he hit his head, because he actually looks upset about it.  "Fire. Everywhere."

It turns out it was an explosive, not a fire, which meant that Pepper had lied to the chief of police, but oh well.  No one got hurt.

Tony had managed to get them all out.  He's quite adept at handling lab emergencies, mostly because he's been dealing with them on his own since he was twelve- chemical burns, fires, cuts, spills, and yes, explosions.  He got everyone out of the room before the fires really even started, and then other than clearing some debris that was blocking the stairwell, it was pretty much easy going all the way up to the roof, where the helicopters were able to fly in and swoop them away.  

Tony's really the only one hurt.  His breathing is funny, with a little rattling noise, and the paramedic had told Pepper she thought his ribs were bruised.  All in all, he was probably going to be fine after a little bit of bed rest (the only thing that Tony Stark couldn't afford) and everything would be fine.

(Well, other than the thousands of dollars of damage to the equipment in the lab, but whatever.  Pepper can buy more with Tony's money.)

"I'm just glad you're okay."  They don't know, yet, about the extent of the damage.  They don't know if anyone else was hurt in the lower floors.  They don't know that Pepper's face is being splashed across every television in America, hailing her as Tony Stark's right hand man, and by the time he gets out of the hospital, she'll be recognized as more than just an assistant.  "I was so worried."

Like always, Tony doesn't seem to know what to do with that.  "I was going to be okay."  He reaches to hold onto her with a clumsy hand.  "I told you before that I won't make you go looking for another job.  You're stuck with me."

Before, that statement might have filled her with panic, or at least dread.  But now it was just a fact, something real, something true, and it made her feel like the ground was back beneath her feet.  

"Good."  She allows herself time for a smile, long enough to drink in the sight of him, bruised and battered and still with the funny breathing but  _okay,_ with her where he belongs, before she paid attention to the voice mails and the emails and all the unread texts, most from Rhodey.  It'd be a long night, and an even longer week, during which Pepper would think of quitting and never would, and also where she would tell herself, over and over, that she was only doing this because it was her job, not because she cared.  Not even a little bit.

"I have to go."  She bends leaves her hand on his for a second longer than she should have, and when she tears herself away, she finds the paramedic staring after her, looking like she had seen something she wasn't supposed to.  Maybe she had.  Pepper wasn't sure anymore, what was safe and what was dangerous.  "I'll be with you as soon as I can, okay?"

(Because she knew, despite his money and his brain and his influence, Tony was missing out on the important things in life, like someone to come hold his hand while he was in the hospital.  No one should have to sit and listen to those machines alone, ticking your life away.)

"I'll be looking forward to it."  He coughs, his shoulders shaking with the effort to breathe, and Pepper turns away, because seeing him as anything less than whole actually hurts.  "Someone's got to look after me."

 _Someone does._ She thinks it should be the person willing to walk through poison smog to get to him, not that she would ever admit that that's what she had thought she was doing.   _Someone will._

 

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on Instagram @olive.writes.fanfic


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